1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to hand tools, and more particularly to a socket device capable of being attached to a ratchet handle and being used to grip and turn machine nuts of variable size or shapes as well as pipes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A standard method of mechanically attaching solid objects to one another so that they might be easily put together and taken apart is through the use of threaded nuts and bolts. The most common designs for nuts and bolts employ either a hexagonal or a square head adapted to accommodate an appropriate wrench as a tool for attachment and removal. Because of the great variety of mechanical applications, nuts and bolts must necessarily be of many different sizes. For the mechanic or technician who must work with these nuts and bolts, these variations in size create a need for a corresponding variety of tools. In addition to this demand, a mechanic is often presented with a nut or bolt that has had its head mutilated by use. In such a condition, the nut or bolt will fail to properly engage a tool of any size.
The tools designed to accommodate nuts and bolts are generally classified as wrenches (also known as spanners). Pliers may also be used to twist fasteners having a generally circular section but these are considered by most craftsmen to be a tool separate and apart from wrenches. There are two broad categories into which most wrenches fall: those with crescent shaped designs and those with sockets. Crescent type wrenches may be of a fixed size or variable size. The jaws of a variable (or adjustable) wrench may be either flat or toothed. Toothed jaws are designed to accommodate either pipes or nuts and bolts which have lost their corners. Open-ended wrenches are of the crescent type.
Socket type wrenches come in only fixed sizes. A socket wrench set is usually composed of a single ratchet handle and a range of attachable sockets. The sockets are designed to be used with nuts and bolts of a specific size and shape, and as a rule do not function when the size or shape deviates significantly from the standard nut or bolt. Heretofore, sockets have always been made with smooth interior faces and do not grip worn nuts and bolts, or rounded pipe ends. Box wrenches and nut drivers are of the socket type.
Each of these designs has advantages and disadvantages. Crescent shaped wrenches generally must be removed from the nut or bolt each time a turn is made. Socket wrenches overcome this limitation by employing a ratchet mechanism that allows continuous contact with the nut. Conversely, sockets have the drawback of requiring some minimum clearance above the nut.
Special tools have been designed to overcome some of these problems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,576,918 issued to Lidell on Mar. 16, 1926, depicts a crescent wrench having a cam-type toothed member adjustably mounted in the jaw of the wrench. This gives the wrench a ratchet like effect as well as allowing use on irregularly shaped objects. Another tool, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,425,302 issued to Davis on Feb. 4, 1969, has a special shim inside the jaw which may be adjusted to three different settings so as to vary the effective distance between the jaw members, thus accommodating different sizes of nuts or bolts. A third device, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,877,328 issued to Sullivan on Apr. 15, 1975, uses standard hexagonal sockets but with special inserts permitting use of the device on different sizes of nuts and bolts.
The foregoing patented wrenches still have certain disadvantages. The Davis and Sullivan devices require the use of a small implement which must be attached to the primary tool and properly adjusted. As any mechanic knows, it is oftentimes difficult to piece together such tools when the user is in cramped quarters (e.g., underneath a car). It would be easier to simply use a set of wrenches or sockets having variable sizes. Also, these small inserts may be easily lost. The Lidell wrench, due to the tooth pattern on opposing jaw members, makes it difficult to remove the tool from the fastener being turned. Lidell also does not have the standard capability of sockets to reach nuts and bolts located down narrow wells and the like. It would therefore, be desirable and advantageous to devise a tool overcoming the limitations, which can be easily used on nuts and bolts or pipes of varying sizes and shapes.